French Open:Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova will meet on Saturday in the French Open's second all-Russian final after winning their respective last-four matches in contrasting fashion today.
While top seed Safina was a comfortable 6-3 6-3 winner over Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova in the first semi-final, seventh seed Kuznetsova survived a mid-match wobble to come through 6-4 6-7 (5/7) 6-3 against Australian doubles specialist Sam Stosur.
Safina, the world number one without a grand slam title to her name, will start as favourite this weekend but Kuznetsova will also be confident having beaten her compatriot in the final of a clay-court tournament in Stuttgart last month, Safina’s only defeat on the dirt in 2009.
Both players have lost finals here before, Kuznetsova to Justine Henin in 2006 and Safina to Ana Ivanovic last year.
Neither of the pair was at her best today in rather forgettable semi-final matches, although Safina was arguably more impressive and her routine victory over Cibulkova, the pint-sized 20th seed, means she has lost only one set en route to the final.
“It obviously gives you much more confidence when you know you can still do much better,” said Safina, who was defeated by Serena Williams in this year’s Australian Open.
“But being under pressure and still winning in two sets, I’m really happy with myself.”
Kuznetsova, the 2004 US Open champion, needed three sets yesterday before seeing off second seed Serena Williams in the quarters and she blew hot and cold 24 hours later against 30th seed Stosur, who has won 22 doubles titles but is yet to claim any honours in singles.
The St Petersburg-born 23-year-old was 4-2 up in the second set and looked ready to clinch a straight-sets win when Stosur fought back.
And at 5-2 down in the tie-break, the Australian reeled off five straight points to take the match into a decider.
Kuznetsova finished the stronger of the two, grabbing the decisive break in game six.
“I’m a little tired because I’ve had two long matches in a row. But it’s all nerves and emotions — I’ll be fine,” she said.
“She (Dinara) is going to be favourite. She’s the number one. She’s played an unbelievable season. I have nothing to lose out there.”
The only previous all-Russian final in the Open era at Roland Garros came in 2004 when Anastasia Myskina defeated Elena Dementieva in straight sets.